The Donkey and the Boat: Reinterpreting the Mediterranean Economy, 950-1180

by Chris Wickham

A new account of the Mediterranean economy in the 10th to 12th centuries, forcing readers to entirely rethink the underlying logic to medieval economic systems. Chris Wickham re-examines documentary and archaeological sources to give a detailed account of both individual economies, and their relationships with each other.

Chris Wickham offers a new account of the Mediterranean economy in the tenth to twelfth centuries, based on a completely new look at the sources, documentary and archaeological. Our knowledge of the Mediterranean economy is based on syntheses which are between 50 and 150 years old; they are based on outdated assumptions and restricted data sets, and were written before there was any usable archaeology; and Wickham contends that they have to be properly rethought.

This is the first book ever to give a fully detailed comparative account of the regions of the Mediterranean in this period, in their internal economies and in their relationships with each other. It focusses on Egypt, Tunisia, Sicily, the Byzantine empire, Islamic Spain and Portugal, and north-central Italy, and gives the first comprehensive account of the changing economies of each; only Byzantium has a good prior synthesis. It aims to force our rethinking of how economies worked in the medieval Mediterranean. It also offers a rethinking of how we should understand the underlying logic of the medieval economy in general.

Genres: History, Medieval, Economics, Nonfiction, Italy, Historical, Spain

848 pages, Hardcover

Published July 13, 2023

About the author

"Chris Wickham is Chichele Professor of Medieval History, and Faculty Board Chair 2009-12.

I have been at Oxford since 2005. Previously, I was Lecturer (1977), Senior Lecturer (1987), Reader (1988), and from 1995 Professor of Early Medieval History, University of Birmingham; and I was an undergraduate and postgraduate at Keble College, Oxford, from 1968 to 1975.

I am a Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales, and a socio of the Accademia dei Lincei."

Reviews

[Andrés CM · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Recientemente ha visto la luz en nuestro país el último trabajo del prestigioso medievalista Chris Wickham: El asno y la nave, publicado por la editorial Crítica. Se trata de un monumental estudio que revisa y rebate todo los escrito sobre la economía de los siglos X-XII en el entorno mediterráneo. En concreto, Wickham fija su mirada en cinco casos regionales: Italia, Egipto, Sicilia, al-Ándalus y Bizancio".
RESEÑA COMPLETA: https://atrapadaenunashojasdepapel.bl...

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot about the progress of history, especially Western Civilization, as I was growing up.

One way to illustrate progress was with the ships first of explorers (Phoenicians, Minoans, Greeks) then of traders which traveled throughout the Mediterranean. Trade progressed from the donkey-laden local stuffs that kept peasants fed; trade developed from ships that ultimately carried luxury goods between elites.

In the Donkey and the Boat, Chris Wickham combines historical documents with current archeological finds to examine the surprising breadth of those laden donkeys. Even in remote corners of places like Spain, Northern Africa, and Sicily, peasants' broken pieces of pottery reveal that poor people could often afford pottery made from broad regions. In many places, there was enough pay for farmers and farm tenants to purchase wares from far away. Besides, many inland places traded with each other instead of back and forth to the seaside.

I really enjoyed the historical documents, such as the genitsa of Jewish traders, as well as the archeological finds. Good book.

[Nikhil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here Wickham tries to place the "efflorescence" of the Mediterranean economy during the High Middle Ages into its proper perspective by examining the centuries which preceded it. He hones in on six areas: Egypt, North Africa, the Byzantine Aegean, Sicily, Iberia, and Northern Italy. Other places come into the picture as needed, but only in a superficial way. He has a strong command of not just documentary sources but also archeology. His central thesis, stressing the importance of local production and demand as opposed to interregional trade, is quite reasonable. Plus points for his historiographical commentary, though his own theorizing is a bit weaker.

[Garrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should admit I did not finish this book and most of it was due to the authors antiquated language. He consistently uses words as "crafty" and "clever" to describe the merchants. This wouldn't ordinarily be a problem except that most of the people he's describing are Jewish- a people who are often stereotyped as being sly and dishonest. It was enough of a bad taste to distract me from the book and I couldn't finish it.

[Timothy Haggerty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book

Didn't know anything about this time frame and area. I feel much more enlightened now. I found it a slow read with so many footnotes to explore.